#Bde Maka Ska

[chaddavisphotography]

Someone snowkiting in Minneapolis on Bde Maka Ska during a February 2025 snowstorm.

[junelalonde]

[oakand-photography]

Sunset over Bde Maka Ska, summertime

[twincitiesseen]

Mystic.

[hclib]

The Changing Moods of Bde Maka Ska

The Changing Moods of Lake Calhoun I love thy waters edge at morn It is so cool, I feel reborn As draw I breaths deep, full, and free And baptize soul with thoughts of thee. At noon-tide, thou art shining fair The sunbeams caught in glistening lair I joy with thee and dance at will For thou art winsome, coy and still. Then fleecy clouds come into view And waft me on to visions new; But while I feast enchanted here There speeds an [illegible] cloudlet near. The wave beneath begin to frown More darkness gathers; then to crown The day's bewitching hour with glee The lake puts on a cap of majestry. The lightning's flash, the thunder's roar

The author of this poem from our Minneapolis and Hennepin County Vertical Subject Files is lost to time. The poem probably dates from the early 1900s, but it seems its author never finished it. If you would like to explore more of the many moods of Bde Maka Ska (Lake Calhoun at the time this poem was written) to find your own poetic inspiration, there are hundreds of photos of the lake in the Hennepin County Library Digital Collections.

[cinemaocd]

This is the reason you know that confederate monuments were put up in the early 20th century after most veterans of the civil war were dead. There is no way they could have named a lake in Minneapolis after the architect of the Confederacy, John C. Calhoun in the state that brought you the First Minnesota Volunteer Infantry....

It’s become a commonly shared anecdote on the internet that Minnesota displays a captured Confederate battle flag belonging to Virginia in their state Capitol and periodically get to smugly deny Virginia’s request for it back. I think what’s less well know is the story of how they got it:

On July 2nd, 1863, on the battlefield in Gettysburg a gap opened up in the Union lines and 1,200 Confederate troops poured through. The only troops close enough to plug the gap were the 262 men of 1st Minnesota Volunteer Infantry. They charged into certain death and held the line until reinforcements arrived, at 6-1 odds, suffering the highest casualty rate of any regiment in any battle in US history, before or since. Only 47 men survived without injuries, most of them would die the next day repelling Picket’s Charge and capturing Virginia’s Battle Flag. To quote a battlefield historian, “The First Minnesota rushed through the storm of bullets coming from the direct fire of two brigades, into the midst and centre of this overwhelming force, with nothing but death to look for, and no hope or chance; for any other success than to gain the brief time needed to save that battlefield. And not a man wavered.”

And to quote the Great Souled Man, and to acknowledge that the best things that could be said about the 1st Minnesota have already been said and that this war is not over, “It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us,that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion, that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

[teenagefeeling]

my "moving to minneapolis" fantasy has never been stronger tbh

[trivialbob]

Today it's sunny and warm here. I got going early on a bike ride, to beat the oncoming hot weather. For this ride I used my single-speed Surly Cross Check. This bike is decked out as a commuter machine, with fenders, rear rack, pannier bag and a center kickstand. Sheila gave it to me for Christmas about ten years ago.

I love the simplicity of a single-speed, but as I get older I start to think about getting gears added. I'm really interested in trying an internally geared hub.

Above in the video is Minnehaha Falls, flowing stronger than usual. On my route map below, the falls are in the lower right corner, a little over halfway of this 18 mile loop. There's a seafood restaurant at the park there too. Sometimes Sheila and I stop there for a beer if we're having a lackadaisical ride.

The top length on the map is the Minneapolis Greenway, a bike trail running along a former railway trench through the city. I rode the Greenway from Bde Maka Ska (pronounced bu-DAY muh-KOSS-ka, the new name of the former Lake Calhoun) to the Mississippi River.

The right side is West River Road. The bottom length is Minnehaha Parkway. To the left are lakes. This route is entirely on paved bike paths, except for a little construction detour off the Greenway this month.

After the ride I got out my bike mechanic stand. I cleaned and lubricated the drivetrains of the Surly and my e-bike. If the weather cools off a little this evening I think I'll take Sulley over to Lake Harriet (where the red marker is on the map) so he can swim a little.

[chaddavisphotography]

Clouds break up following severe thunderstorms in Minneapolis on August 26, 2024.

[oakand-photography]

Bde Maka Ska at sunset, stark lines on the ice and in the sky

[twincitiesseen]

Bde Maka Ska on a fall afternoon.

[sabreean]

This has been a weekend of outstanding birdsong and sigh, and there have been quite a few firsts.  Last Thursday on my walk to work, for only the second time in the weeks I've been listening, I heard a black-capped chickadee among the house sparrows and Northern Cardinals and American robins and crows. Then to my great surprise, I heard a merlin! It was one of those "I can't be hearing what I think I am" moments but you can't mistake a raptor and sure enough, my bird app (called "Merlin" if you can believe it) told me yep, you really did hear a merlin. It's a small falcon that's rare in urban spaces. It preys on small birds and bog knows there are plenty of those in Uptown so that’s probably why it's here. Then wonder of wonders - I heard it again on my walk home this evening! Along with the chickadee again and another first, a song sparrow. I also heard an American goldfinch on the walk home, again for only the second time since I started listening, and caught a glimpse of it flying into my neighbor's tree. A bright yellow male, ready to find a mate. I also heard a house finch which I hear occasionally with the sparrows, but not regularly.  The next morning I went through the alleys to work instead of walking along the street to cut down on car noise and I had another first - a pine siskin.  It’s a small finch that likes to hang out with goldfinches.  I’ll certainly remember it if I hear one again, it does a bizarre little ziiiiiiiiiiip sound at the back end of its very manic call.

I had two more firsts late Saturday morning, while walking my dog Slater: a golden-crowned kinglet and a white-throated sparrow. They, like yesterday’s pine siskin, like hanging out in the coniferous trees that abound in Uptown yards.  Especially back yards so I'm not surprised that I heard all three while walking own alleys, not streets. Wait, the white-throated sparrow was on the street, but still you get the idea. It was very breezy today and the car traffic was heavy so the app didn't hear as many birds as usual, methinks. But then neither did I. 

I went back and listened to recordings of some of the birds I've heard because I want to learn to hear them without the app. I can pick out house sparrows, cardinals, robins, chickadees without the app now (I never needed the app for crows or Canada geese, that would just be damned embarrassing) and boy will I remember the golden-crowned kinglet, that was very distinctive. Anyhoo, the first day I was listening the app identified tundra swans for what I thought the app heard inaccurately, that they were Canada geese because the geese are everywhere. We live 15-20 minutes' walk away from the Chain of lakes:  Bde Unma (Lake Harriet), Bde Maka Ska and Wita Tome (Lake of the Isles) and the geese fly over our house and neighborhood a fair bit.  I even think I heard a mallard once but it only vocalized that single time and it was before I was using the Merlin app, so I'm not counting coup on that one. But I just listened to recordings of tundra swans and the app was right; it was tundra swans, *very* different from the geese. I have a book on Minnesota phenology and the two birds migrate back to the Twin Cities about the same time, starting a couple of weeks ago.  I don't think I'll ever be able to tell a house sparrow from a house finch, my ear just can't parse out the very small differences, but the goldfinch trills more so I think I can learn that one with more listens. Same for song sparrow, I can tell it's different from the house sparrow in several ways, but I need to hear it a few more times. That's how I knew I'd heard something new yesterday. I don't watch my phone as I'm walking but when I hear a new-to-me bird I snatch it up to see what the sound hit was. The white-throated sparrow sounds like a human whistling while they walk along.  If I hadn’t had the app I would have thought it was a person.

And then today, walking around Wita Tomne in the early afternoon, I did hear tundra swans again!  Along with two more firsts - a downy woodpecker and a red-winged blackbird.  We saw many mating pairs of mallards but they were quiet; heard and saw many Canada geese that were also probably mating pairs nest-siting, because it’s that time of year, but the males and females are so much alike that I can't tell them apart. I also saw a duck that seemed smaller than the mallards, with white stripes down a black head. It’s not in any of the lists of Minnesota duck species and a web search for ducks with white stripes on their heads did not identify if, especially disappointing because I was using Duck Duck Go. It also heard common grackles which I saw yesterday walking to the optometrist, but it didn’t vocalize so I dismissed it as a small crow because I didn’t know grackles lived this far north. But today proved it and the phenology book backed it up, it was a grackle.

[sohannabarberaesque]

BETTY MAKASKA, a somewhat close friend of Snagglepuss (and original character of mine in a Hanna-Barberian vein, know), following some relaxation in a hot spring pool: I wonder why coffee tastes so good when you're out naked in a hot spring pool such as this ...

[spareham]

not to be pedantic but that's not the mississippi, thats bde maka ska

[trivialbob]

This morning I woke up at the insane time of 3:15 AM. Shockingly, I felt well rested. I read in bed for a while, finally finishing a book the library automatically renewed twice. I did not care for the ending. It seemed like the author looked at his watch or calendar and realized there's a deadline, so time to cram a lot of action and resolution into nine pages and call it done.

Then I got up and started laundry. I like doing laundry. That's why my wife doesn't care what I spend on a washer and dryer. She's relieved of laundry duty.

Of course I don't waste money on some machine that gives me a choice of chimes to signal the end of the cycle. I have a solid, practical washer/dryer combo. If they were cars they'd be Toyota Camrys, the XLE trim level, and probably with the V6.

After brewing and ingesting a fair amount of coffee I washed all the bedding in the house. Sunrise today was 6:56 AM. Any awake neighbors might have laughed at me because I was hanging sheets, a blanket, and a quilt on my clothesline two hours before the darkness left. Even the bats likely thought I was crazy.

When it finally got light outside I took the dogs to the airport dog park. Plane-watching sucked. We saw some other Aussies, which always makes me smile.'

When Ella, Oliver, and Sulley were tired I brought them home, Then I got my Surly Cross Check out for a ride. I did a ten mile loop around the three Minneapolis lakes I enjoy being at. The weather was perfect.

Later, grocery shopping followed by making the beds and cleaning around the house.

Sulley still had energy. He's a year-and-a-half old. Ella is 12 and Oliver is 10. It really pissed off the older dogs when I took only Sulley for a walk around Lake Harriet. The other two would have been too exhausted to complete the 2.8 mile loop, though Ella would have liked a swim.

Now I think I understand why Sulley did poorly in obedience school. He's rarely on a leash. Between our fenced-in back yard and the mostly fenced-in dog park, that boy isn't used to having a leash on except to go from the car to the park gate or when he's in a brewery.

At the lake the first ten minutes were awkward as he and I figured out leash protocol. Then it got easy. He was very well behaved. Now I'm starting to think of trying another obedience class, after I take him on more leashed long walks.

Top picture is a view of Bde Maka Ska from a bike path. That's the Dakota name that replaced Lake Calhoun as the lake's current name. The second picture is the trolley car that runs from Lake Harriet to Bde Maka Ska. The operator rang a bell to warn Sulley and me to not attempt to cross the street as the trolley approached. It was kind of cute.

Now I'm going to eat a Jimmy John's sub and watch the final season of Succession. I don't like waiting week by week for new episodes. I waited for some time and now I can binge watch it.